Lib Dems prove once again they are not fit to govern

[DodgyAgent]

Nordic countries intervene early on in childhood to show children what the state and in turn their society expects from them. Hence the free or heavily subsidised nursery care for every child.

If the authorities think the parents are still lacking even with that amount of intervention they get more involved. The idea is to stop children becoming future prison statistics and costing the state, in turn society, more.

Unfortunately not all Nordic countries can cope with immigration from certain Muslim countries, as like with the politically correct in the UK, they bend over backwards to accommodate these people's bigoted and sexist attitudes. So you will hear stories in some Nordic countries such as a Muslim helper giving all the male children in a class milk first before the female children, which would not be accepted in the UK.


In one way you could argue it's a fault of the rich as if you can afford to educate your kid privately and do so, then you don't have a vested interest in making sure that useless teachers in a state school are removed.

It's shown that state education in this country has a postcode lottery. (I'm a product of it.) If you are lucky enough to go to a state school with enough upwardly mobile immigrants and/or middle class parents then you will get a better education than if you go to a state school with working class and under-class parents who threaten to punch teachers' lights out.

So if it is up to the better off to send their kids to failing schools in order to bring up the standards of education (old and illogical socialist argument) then two questions.
who is going to sacrifice their own childrens education in the hope (and that is all it is) that the inner city failing comprehensive will raise its standards for the benefit of everyone else - if you send your child to a "failing" school because you feel morally obliged to help the rest of society it wont happen during the 5 year span of your child being at the school.
secondly what do we need a government for if it the onus of responsibility for raising school standards falls on the better off

MP and wife split over school | Politics | The Guardian

It is surely better to empower the parents and guardians of children by giving them vouchers that they can then use to send their children to whatever school they want.

[DodgyAgent]

How does this not make sense? If the citizens of the town found it beneficial to use the local shops then they would be prepared to pay a premium for the convenience which would have allowed the businesses to stay in existence. As they found it more cost/time efficient or better to go to other shops, then they obviously can't complain if the shops in town goes.

Wouldn't it be nice if steam trains were back. Yes how twee that would be, but..... would you be prepared to pay more for your rail fare to see them back? No i doubt it, which is why they don't operate today. If people liked steam trains so much that they would be prepared to pay a premium to cover the increases expenses and more then steam trains wouldn't go away. But people weren't and they died, just like the shops in this town.

You argue that closing the bank to increase profits was unsustainable. Well, if it increased profits for the bank, this means.... the individual branch was unprofitable. And lack of profit is definitely unsustainable. The bank is not a charity, thus it was well within its rights to closed.

WHS
To which I will add that town centre shopping centres have been killed off by high rates , draconian enforcement of parking regulations and feral yobs smashing up town centres. I will add that these feral yobs are products of failing public services.

[OwlHoot]

UKIP ahead of Lib Dems in the latest poll

Lib Dems 10%, UKIP 12%

[minestrone]

UKIP ahead of Lib Dems in the latest poll

Lib Dems 10%, UKIP 12%

[Robinho]

UKIP ahead of Lib Dems in the latest poll

Lib Dems 10%, UKIP 12%

That's good news but the real worry is Labour are ahead in the polls.

A Conny UKIP coalition would be nice for the next term.

[cykophysh39]

You argue that closing the bank to increase profits was unsustainable. Well, if it increased profits for the bank, this means.... the individual branch was unprofitable. And lack of profit is definitely unsustainable. The bank is not a charity, thus it was well within its rights to closed.

Closing of branches due unprofitability is not always the case. In many cases this is done for consolidation measures, i.e amalgamation of branches to increase profitability, not to reduce costs. This decisions tend to have an impact on the Macro-Environment, rather than on the Balance sheet. In real terms, these steps are really taken to please shareholder demands of cost reductions, in times where the profits are not as good as once expected. This has nothing to do with the banks actually making a loss.

There is detrimental effect on a town, when a Bank, Post Office or any public centre of gravity is closed down, which negatively affects the towns economic environement. For a start the Property Prices in a town will enevitably decline, due in part to less services available, and also employment opportunities for the town folk. Also, the increased cost burden they are to endure to make use of basic services etc.

There is nothing "Twee" or "Conservative" about these arguments, they are in fact reality. I am all for making a profit, I wouldn't be in business if I didn't. However, I do believe that companies and institutions do have responsibilities for the communities that they operate in, but unfortunately in my experience decisions taken to invest in an area are primarily based on how much more profit can be made from an area, and far less emphasise is given to how it can be sustained, because it is by far easier to Close/Relocate.

[sasguru]

. Clearly the public services are failing in Germany as much as they are failing here. by failing I mean that they are failing to prepare particularly the poor and young to compete and join in with the rest of society.
.

Have you ever been to Germany? How did you reach that conclusion? German public services are far superior to ours. Their training, particularly the apprenticeship system for non-academic students is excellent. Their youth unemployment rate is far smaller than any other western economy - in fact at 5% overall unemployment one could say they have full employment (the 5% being people who won't work).
All this kicks the US (let alone the UK) into touch.

[sasguru]

You are a moron.

In fact, you are.
HTH, BIKIW.

[Lockhouse]

UKIP ahead of Lib Dems in the latest poll

Lib Dems 10%, UKIP 12%

[Scoobos]

However, I do believe that companies and institutions do have responsibilities for the communities that they operate in, but unfortunately in my experience decisions taken to invest in an area are primarily based on how much more profit can be made from an area, and far less emphasise is given to how it can be sustained, because it is by far easier to Close/Relocate.

Good point and one that personally moved me away from the right and believing that economical growth == an increase in the standard of living.

It's my understanding, that as a CEO or an MD; it is not THEIR money to play with - so they are legally bound to maximise profits.

Say a CEO decides to invest in the local community as a thanks to the workers (such as the oilfields of Alberta), unless it can be seen to increase productivity / profits it is theft for him to spend "shareholders money" on doing this.

If you want to do something "ethical" to put back into the world, you do it with your OWN money.

If you want to externalise costs to the environment, local community or whatever, then thats fine and the CEO is only held responsible if he acted in a way without consultation.

How then, can we trust our future and our strategy on what is essentially a beast that has to make profit, whatever the external costs, without the right for remorse or fair play?

Corporations were invented and formed to serve the public, but now the big ones seem to work against us, with our goverments backing. BP are shocking for example, really really shocking.